Since 2012, we’ve undertaken projects of all shapes and sizes. To deliver this program, we’ve collaborated with a huge variety of organisations – from the University, local area and further afield. Find out more about our past ventures here: 

Annual Reviews
Giving an overview of our work in each year, you can read our annual reviews online.
2021-2022 Year in Numbers
2020-2021 A year like no other
2018-2019 Highlights

Operation Survival and Cambridge Codebreakers: The Last Secret
We partnered with Fire Hazard Games to deliver two high-octane digital adventure games across a number of our museums. Imagine head-scratching puzzles and a madcap rush between venues (not in the galleries!). Find out more on our Collections in Action blog:
Operation Survival
Cambridge Codebreakers: turning museum visitors into players
Cambridge Codebreakers: developing a codebreaking adventure across four museums
2017-2019

India Unboxed
To mark the UK-India Year of Culture 2017, we celebrated a shared season on the theme of India - a programme of exhibitions, events, digital encounters, discussions, installations and more within the museums and the city of Cambridge.
Rooted in our collections, the programme explored themes of identity and connectivity for audiences in both the UK and India, with support from Arts Council England. Read the India Unboxed Evaluation Report
2017-18

The Museum as Method
This conference, run in collaboration with the University's Centre for Research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (CRASSH), brought together scholars from disciplines interested in material culture and curators from across the arts and sciences, to reflect on both questions of methodology and public policy.
2016 

Curating Cambridge
Curating Cambridge: our city, our stories, our stuff was a collaborative arts and cultural season which took place over October and November 2014. Read the Curating Cambridge Evaluation Report
2014

Artist in Residence, North West Cambridge Development
The Artist in Residence programme at the North West Cambridge Development ran throughout the development of the site, with three artists being appointed each year. 
2014-2016

Discoveries: Art, Science and Exploration
In 2014, Discoveries, the first major show to bring together the fascinating collections from all eight University of Cambridge Museums, took place at London's Two Temple Place and the Fitzwilliam Museum.
2014

House Guests
From March to July 2013 specimens, objects and artworks from the University of Cambridge Museums and collections took up residence at Kettle's Yard. The 'guests', from butterflies to Inuit carving, invited visitors to see Kettle's Yard in a new light and to discover more about the University of Cambridge Museums.
2013

Thresholds
In 2012 Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy invited ten of the best UK poets writing today to take part in a series of residencies at the University of Cambridge Museums. Each poet spent time in their host museum or collection, exploring the collection and working with young people, helping them to develop their critical thinking skills as well as their writing.
2012-13

What's On

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
28 May 2024
-

Indulge in the unique opportunity to explore our collection of plants and their associated wildlife before anyone else arrives, on an early morning guided nature walk around the Garden.

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
29 May 2024
-

Come along for a guided walk led by the Head of Horticulture, Sally Petitt, exploring water use practices at the Garden.  

Kettle's Yard
01 May 2024
-
Kettle's Yard
15 Apr 2024
-
Kettle's Yard
29 May 2024
-
Kettle's Yard
07 Jun 2024
- , -
Kettle's Yard
22 Jun 2024
-
Kettle's Yard
12 Jul 2024
- , -
Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
14 Jun 2024
-

Join our Collections Coordinator, Margeaux Apple, to hear the stories of trees in the Botanic Garden.

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
02 Jun 2024
-

Why wetlands? The role of wetlands in climate change.

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
23 Jun 2024
-

A talk by Henry Stanier from the Wildlife Trust about the Great Fen.

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
15 Jun 2024
-

A talk by Brian Eversham from the Wildlife Trust about the importance of peatlands.

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
13 Jun 2024
-

Indulge in the unique opportunity to explore our collection of plants and their associated wildlife before anyone else arrives, on an early morning guided nature walk around the Garden.

Cambridge University Botanic Garden 
26 Jun 2024
-

Indulge in the unique opportunity to explore our collection of plants and their associated wildlife before anyone else arrives, on an early morning guided nature walk around the Garden.

Museum of Zoology
11 May 2024
-

Join us for a FREE expert guided tour about gender and sex in the animal world. 

Museum of Zoology
25 May 2024
-

Join us for a FREE expert guided tour about gender and sex in the animal world. 

Museum of Zoology
01 Jun 2024
-

Join us for a FREE expert guided tour about gender and sex in the animal world. 

Museum of Zoology
08 Jun 2024
-

Join us for a FREE expert guided tour about gender and sex in the animal world. 

Museum of Zoology
15 Jun 2024
-

Join us for a FREE expert guided tour about gender and sex in the animal world.

Museum of Zoology
29 Jun 2024
-

Join us for a FREE expert guided tour about gender and sex in the animal world. 

Museum of Zoology
10 May 2024
-

Join us on a FREE expert guided tour around the Museum of Zoology

Museum of Zoology
14 Jun 2024
-

Join us on a FREE expert guided tour of the Museum. 

Museum of Zoology
12 Jul 2024
-

Join us for a FREE expert guided tour of the Museum

Whipple Museum of the History of Science
29 May 2024
-

   Contemporary artist and photographer Graham Fudger brings ten light-themed activity tables to the learning room for a free to access hands-on workshop exploring an artist’s response to the amazing scientific principles of colour, light, and the science of seeing.

Whipple Museum of the History of Science
30 May 2024
-

Contemporary artist and photographer Graham Fudger brings ten light-themed activity tables to the learning room for a free to access hands-on workshop exploring an artist’s response to the amazing scientific principles of colour, light, and the science of seeing.

Whipple Museum of the History of Science
25 Apr 2024
The Fitzwilliam Museum
18 May 2024
-

How does folklore help us understand our collections and local history? Join co-curators of Tensions of Belonging: Connecting Cambridge for an open discussion to explore Fenland pasts.

The Fitzwilliam Museum
25 May 2024
-

Join Dr Carol Brown-Leonardi on a journey of intrigue and discovery of the medieval world. Weaving together mythology, history, and archaeology, Brown-Leonardi brings to light the story of people of colour in medieval Britain and Europe.

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
27 Jun 2024
-

Join artist Dr Rona Lee for a tour of the installation Lithic Entanglements, followed by a conversation exploring the ideas that have informed this fresh and bold intervention within the Museum's displays.

 

 

 

 

Museum of Classical Archaeology
23 May 2024
-

Grab a glass of wine and get your sketch on...

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
22 Apr 2024

A new temporary art installation co-curated with a group of young people from Parkside Community College and artist Hilary Cox Condron. This creative response to the Museum’s collections and the current climate crisis explores extinction, climate change and hope for the future.

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
20 May 2024
-

Come and be inspired by the displays and objects that our staff love. 

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
13 May 2024
-

Come and be inspired by the displays and objects that our staff love.

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
27 May 2024
-

Come and be inspired by the displays and objects that our staff love.

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
29 May 2024
-

Drop into our hands-on activities inspired by our art installation, The Butterfly Effect. Discover awe-inspiring fossil invertebrates, make butterflies for us to display, and explore at-home activities to help protect local wildlife.

Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences
31 May 2024
-

Drop into our hands-on activities inspired by our art installation, The Butterfly Effect. Discover awe-inspiring fossil invertebrates, make butterflies for us to display, and explore at-home activities to help protect local wildlife.

Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
28 Jun 2024
-

Creative workshop for blind and partially sighted adults, and companions.